Hobbit Month

[dreamflower]

( ceshaughnessy was unable to get her Hobbit Month entry completed for today, so she asked for someone to fill in for her. I offered to do it, so that I could go ahead and post that portion I could not get completed for my own assigned date.)



The Shire Calendar

One of the most useful and fascinating parts of The Lord of the Rings are the Appendices. The Tale of Years, the Family Trees, notes on languages… all of these things are fodder for the fanfic writer, as well as giving us some of the details that give verisimilitude to Middle-earth and to our stories.

JRRT himself made no use within the story of the calendars he created for his world. He consistently used the modern names of days and months, rather than the less familiar ones he devised. Perhaps he (or his editor) thought that it would be confusing for readers to understand the unusual names. It was probably a wise decision, as first-time readers would have no frame of reference for them. And yet it is a shame to allow the wonderful calendar he created go to waste. In addition, the truth is that there are enough differences between the Shire Calendar and the modern calendar to make it rather inexact to correlate the months (for example, our February has only 28 days except in Leap year, when it has 29. The Shire version of February, Solmath, always has 30 days.)

"The Calendar in the Shire differed in several features from ours. The year no doubt was of the same length, for long ago as those times are now reckoned in years and lives of men, they were not very remote according to the memory of the Earth. It is recorded by the Hobbits that they had no 'week' when they were still a wandering people, and though they had 'months', governed more or less by the Moon, their keeping of dates and calculations of time were vague and insecure. In the westlands of Eriador, when they had begun to settle down. they adopted the King's reckoning of the Dúnedain, which was ultimately of Eldarin origin; but the Hobbits of the Shire introduced several minor alterations. This calendar, or Shire Reckoning' as it was called, was eventually adopted also in Bree, except for the Shire usage of counting as Year 1 the year of the colonization of the Shire". (LotR, Appendix D)

(In making use of Shire Reckoning, for those who usually write using the Númenorean dates, it is simple enough to convert to Shire Reckoning by simply subtracting 1600 (the year of the Third Age in which the Shire was founded) from the relevant Third Age year.)

"The Shire names are set out in the Calendar. It may be noted that Solmath was usually pronounced, and sometimes written Somath. Thrimidge was often written Thrimich (archaically Thrimilch) and Blotmath was pronounced Blodmath or Blommath. In Bree, the names varied, being Frery, Solmath, Rethe, Chithing, Thrimidge, Lithe, The Summerdays, Mede, Wedmath, Harvestmath, Wintring, Blooting, and Yulemath. Frery, Chithing and Yulemath were also used in the Eastfarthing." (LotR, Appendix D)

The calendar I have arranged differs from the one JRRT has in Appendix D only in having the days of the week added for convenience.

"Its [the Yellowskin] earliest entries seem to have begun at least nine hundred years before Frodo's time, and many are cited in the Red Book annals and genealogies. In these, the weekday names appear in archaic forms, of which the following are the oldest: Sterrendei, (2) Sunnendei, (3) Monendei, (4) Trewesdei, (5) Hevensdei, (6) Meresdei, (7) Highdei. In the language of the time of the War of the Ring these had become Sterday, Sunday, Monday, Trewsday, Hevensday (or Hensday), Mersday, Highday.

There are some very elegant and sophisticated elements to the Shire Calendar, that to my own mind make it in many ways superior to the modern calendar in use today. Not only do the years begin and end on the same days of the week each and every year, but the second half of the year begins and ends in the same way as the first half of the year. And each year, the same dates will always fall on the same day of the week, meaning, for example, that Frodo's and Bilbo's birthday will always fall on a Mersday (Thursday).

Using the calendars that JRRT devised is not truly necessary in fanfic, given his own example, but personally I find using the Shire Calendar helps give me the feel of being more immersed in Middle-earth. At any rate, I think it is truly fascinating.

 

 

 

January (Afteryule)

Saturday (Sterday)	2 Yule	7	14	21	28
Sunday	1	8	15	22	29
Monday	2	9	16	23	30
Tuesday (Trewsday)	3	10	17	24	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	4	11	18	25	-
Thursday (Mersday)	5	12	19	26	-
Friday (Highday)	6	13	20	27	-

 

February (Solmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	5	12	19	26
Sunday	-	6	13	20	27
Monday	-	7	14	21	28
Tuesday (Trewsday)	1	8	15	22	29
Wednesday (Hensday)	2	9	16	23	30
Thursday (Mersday)	3	10	17	24	-
Friday (Highday)	4	11	18	25	-

March (Rethe)

Saturday (Sterday	-	3	10	17	24
Sunday	-	4	11	18	25
Monday	-	5	12	19	26
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	6	13	20	27
Wednesday (Hensday)	-	7	14	21	28
Thursday (Mersday)	1	8	15	22	29
Friday (Highday)	2	9	16	23	30

April (Astron)

Saturday (Sterday	1	8	15	22	29
Sunday	2	9	16	23	30
Monday	3	10	17	24	-
Tuesday (Trewsday)	4	11	18	25	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	5	12	19	26	-
Thursday (Mersday)	6	13	20	27	-
Friday (Highday)	7	14	21	28	-

May (Thrimidge)

Saturday (Sterday	-	6	13	20	27
Sunday	-	7	14	21	28
Monday	1	8	15	22	29
Tuesday (Trewsday)	2	9	16	23	30
Wednesday (Hensday)	3	10	17	24	-
Thursday (Mersday)	4	11	18	25	-
Friday (Highday)	5	12	19	26	-

 

June (Forelithe)

Saturday (Sterday	-	4	11	18	25
Sunday	-	5	12	19	26
Monday	-	6	13	20	27
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	7	14	21	28
Wednesday (Hensday)	1	8	15	22	29
Thursday (Mersday)	2	9	16	23	30
Friday (Highday)	3	10	17	24	1 Lithe

Midsummer's Day
(Overlithe) 

Lithe was a three-day holiday most years. It consisted of 1 Lithe, which was the last day of Forelithe, Midsummer's Day (a day which was not part of a month or a week), and 2 Lithe, which was the first day of Afterlithe.

 

Midsummer's Day

occurred each year, but "Overlithe" only occurred in leap years. The only Overlithe we have a definite year for is SR 1420. Using that date, it is easy enough to figure up and down to other years that would have had the extra Litheday.

July (Afterlithe)

Saturday (Sterday	2 Lithe	7	14	21	28
Sunday	1	8	15	22	29
Monday	2	9	16	23	30
Tuesday (Trewsday)	3	10	17	24	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	4	11	18	25	-
Thursday (Mersday)	5	12	19	26	-
Friday (Highday)	6	13	20	27	-

August (Wedmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	5	12	19	26
Sunday	-	6	13	20	27
Monday	-	7	14	21	28
Tuesday (Trewsday)	1	8	15	22	29
Wednesday (Hensday)	2	9	16	23	30
Thursday (Mersday)	3	10	17	24	-
Friday (Highday)	4	11	18	25	-

September (Halimath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	3	10	17	24
Sunday	-	4	11	18	25
Monday	-	5	1 2	19	26
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	6	13	20	27
Wednesday (Hensday)	-	7	14	21	28
Thursday (Mersday)	1	8	15	22	29
Friday (Highday)	2	9	16	23	30

October (Winterfilth)

Saturday (Sterday	1	8	15	22	29
Sunday	2	9	16	23	30
Monday	3	10	17	24	-
Tuesday (Trewsday)	4	11	18	25	-
Wednesday (Hensday)	5	12	19	26	-
Thursday (Mersday)	6	13	20	27	-
Friday (Highday)	7	14	21	28	-

November (Blotmath)

Saturday (Sterday	-	6	13	20	27
Sunday	-	7	14	21	28
Monday	1	8	15	22	29
Tuesday (Trewsday)	2	9	16	23	30
Wednesday (Hensday)	3	10	17	24	-
Thursday (Mersday)	4	11	18	25	-
Friday (Highday)	5	12	19	26	-

December (Foreyule)

Saturday (Sterday	-	4	11	18	25
Sunday	-	5	12	19	26
Monday	-	6	13	20	27
Tuesday (Trewsday)	-	7	14	21	28
Wednesday (Hensday)	1	8	15	22	29
Thursday (Mersday)	2	9	16	23	30
Friday (Highday)	3	10	17	24	1 Yule

I had hoped to add more information to this post, but formatting it has been a bear to say the least. I do hope that it will be informative and useful.

Comments

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Hurray! Even if I use the "borrowed from the Romans" version I do love the sound and flavor of the Shire month and day names. (And I do use the day/date matching system, the same way Tolkien does.)

One thing that I think odd about the whole business, though--these names themselves had to be "translations"!--considering that they're composed of English elements the same way that "smial" and "mathom" are.

So there's another layer of Westron names out there presumably.

The whole thing makes me rather suspect that this and Appendix F were composed around different times. Considering the way the appendices were rushed to publication it might explain the inconsistency. Unfortunately that's a little fact that rarely lends itself to explanation in fic...

[dreamflower]

I had several other things I wanted to point out, interspersed between the months, but sadly every attempt to do so completely ruined the formatting, reducing my careful calendars to strings of incomprehensible code. (I use the "cheat" method, of making the tables in Rich Text, and then converting them to HTML by switching over. But it can only go so far.)

One of the things I wanted to point out was how cleverly JRRT managed to fit "names" that looked and sounded remarkably *like* those we now use into his own legendarium (for example "Trewsday" was intended to have come from "Two Trees Day".

I suspect the same as you, by the way. Some parts of the Appendices appear to have been charted or composed during the writing of his epic, while others seem to be afterthoughts. I think the Family Trees and the Calendar were of the earlier variety.

[shirebound]

Oh my goodness! This is a fascinating resource.

[dreamflower]

It was fun to think up, but frustrating to post. But there is so much to those calendars-- it's one more example of what a remarkable mind the Professor had!

[shirebound]

The layers and layers and layers of complexity with the Professor's world is what makes it so very real.

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can so imagine how difficult it was to format this! But it's very well done, Barbara!

[addie71.livejournal.com]

What an interesting post, thanks!

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

I really admire you for being able to put this all together.

[dreamflower]

Thank you!

[dreamflower]

You're welcome! I hope it's useful, as well.

[dreamflower]

Thanks! The info, of course, was not hard to come by. Getting the post to hang together and all of the stuff in the little boxes, was another matter altogether!

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting! I hadn't seen a lot of this before. I found especially the pronunciation of the weekdays interesting and the variations for other parts of Middle-earth. I knew about Overlithe and leapyears but didn't realize that Midsummer's day doesn't belong to any week or month. :)

Thank you!! Very fascinating contribution to Hobbit Month!

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

One of the things I wanted to point out was how cleverly JRRT managed to fit "names" that looked and sounded remarkably *like* those we now use into his own legendarium (for example "Trewsday" was intended to have come from "Two Trees Day".

Gosh, yes! Of course the fact that hobbits would have a "Treesday" (Monday and Sunday make sense, and one of these days I'm going to work the older spellings in there) raises a whole slew of questions as to how much Elvish mythology was actually embedded in their culture, and whether in earlier days when they were in greater contact with the elves they had something closer to the lore we see in such texts as the Silm. Kind of shakes up the interpretations of those of us (like me) who don't like seeing too much of the Silm entering the Shire (i.e., hobbits knowing the names of the Valar). And I'm not complaining!@

I also feel the need to state the extent to which I squeed my pants when I managed to see the LotR stage show and noticed that they worked some of the hobbit weekday names into one song (even though I checked the days against canon afterwards and discovered that they did not keep the right names!).

[dreamflower]

It really is an amazing calendar, and I think it would work great in the real world. What's especially neat is how he was able to arrange it so that every single month had 30 days!

[dreamflower]

I would imagine the earliest Shire settlers might have known some of the stories--they received the Shire from the hands of a Numenorean king, after all. But I am also sure that any such that they might have known in the beginning were soon lost in the mists of time, only retained by the odd word or two of obscure origin.

I do think they might have had some tales of the Fair Folk that could have been vastly changed versions of the originals. But if they did it would have been considered only tales for entertainment, not history. And I don't think that they would have known about the names of the Valar or any of that sort of thing, at least not by the time we get to Bilbo's generation.

Bilbo himself, however, could have brought "new" (as in the old, original) Elven tales home from Rivendell. He had nearly two generations of youngsters he could have regaled with those stories. I am quite sure that he also would have educated Frodo in whatever knowledge he possessed. As to whether that would have gone beyond the two of them (as history and not tales), well, I highly doubt that.

In fact, speculation about that is right down your alley...

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

In fact, speculation about that is right down your alley...

Heh heh heh...

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent reference!
Thanks for posting this.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

wow, that's wonderfully detailed explanation! Thank you! What a labor of love! :))

[garnet-took.livejournal.com]

Very well done, Dreamflower, both in content and formatting.:)

The calendars fascinated me from the first time I read them. I didn't notice until just now that I have most of the four hobbits born on Mersday. Of course, Frodo and Sam's birthdays are established in canon, but I picked Thrimidge 25 as Pippin's birthday, which is a Mersday; and I have Merry born on Afteryule 1, and that's a Sunday. Just a piece of trivia for myself that I noticed while reading this.:)

Thank you for all the research you do and all the interesting things you find in the canon material.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

Oh this is marvelous to read, especially after seeing Tolkien's notes on the Shire calendar as part of the manuscripts at Fordham University. I loved seeing his notes and calculations and plotting. Especially interesting were Hobbity units of length: 2 nails = 1 toe, 6 toes = 1 foot, etc. I don't know that he used them anywhere, yet he worked them out in detail.

[dreamflower]

Thanks! I hope it *will* be a useful reference!

[dreamflower]

*grin* It's always a labor of love to contemplate the Shire and hobbits, and speculate on how they lived. I love details like the Shire Calendar. It's proof of how much JRRT loved his hobbits as well.

[dreamflower]

Well, Sam's birthday is hinted at (it says "some people say"), but I had to change it for my Sam, for several reasons. My Pippin's birthday is April 1 (appropriate for a Took!) and my Merry was born on the 14th of February!

I have a lot of fun digging in the Appendices.

[dreamflower]

Oh what fun! I suppose he didn't use them for the same reason he didn't use the Shire weekday and month names. But it shows just how much he loved his world, that he put so much work into it.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I haven't gotten much into the calendar's yet, so I really appreciate your mapping out this unexplored territory for me. (-: What a job you have done! So bookmarking!

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

Bravo! Very well done. I can't even imagine what it took to get that formatted and posted.
It's a very useful tool as well. Thank you for posting this.

[telstar109.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, I've bookmarked it and added it to my memories!! I've always enjoyed that part of the Appendices, and consulted them for fics, but to have the information laid out clearly like this is much better!! Well done with the formatting, I know how frustrating LJ can be in that respect! :)

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

I've always faked the months in my fic because I would be in the midst of writing and not want to go hunt through the books for the calendar that I vaguely remembered was in the back somewhere. (Maps and family trees, however, were an entirely different matter, for some reason.)

And now here it is! Thank you so very much, and also for the very impressive job of formatting!

*send you a virtual basket of lembas, with the prettiest of posies in it as well*

[dreamflower]

That's just the reason I did it, in the hopes that it would come in handy for others! I'm very glad!

[dreamflower]

It helps. I have printed out the calendar as it is in the back of the book for my own use, but it doesn't have the days of the week; so I thought I would fix that.

It really was frustrating-- even using the Rich TExt, I had to completely scrap it and start over more times than I cared to count. But I think it was worth it.

[dreamflower]

You're welcome! I hoped it would be useful!

[dreamflower]

Using the calendar can really make a difference when you are writing a story, as it can help give you a framework to hang it in. I'm glad you are finding it useful!

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for this! I'm adding to memories so I can have it to refer to. It was very interesting at the Tolkien manuscript display at Fordham to see the timelines JRRT had devised for the LOTR and in his own hand. Sometimes so tiny and cramped that it was almost impossible to decipher. It gave you a greater appreciation for Christopher Tolkien's dedication and also sympathy for those moments in HoME when he says he couldn't make out his father's handwriting!!

[dreamflower]

I'm very glad you will find it useful! That was my hope in compiling it.

And yes, we owe a lot to Christopher's dedication to his father's work! I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must have been at times.